"Stupidity is far more dangerous than evil"

Yes, if Trump's political style were purely "evil" it would be calculating and make a sort of logic and it would be easier to expose and rally against.
Because it is often chaotic and absurd people waste time arguing over the facts (or being distracted by the spectacle of him/his announcements) and supporters just ignore the facts anyway...

Debating anything to do with Trump with a supporter (or him probably) makes effective, rational resistance extremely difficult. The chaos itself is his successful strategy.

Unfortunately.

Ironic really that Dietrich Bonhoeffer's famous essay, "After Ten Years," written whilst imprisoned by the Nazis.

Sad definitely NotSpaghetti But Bonhoeffer had seen evil leaders followed by people who ignored the facts and found those people to be the most dangerous.

How could anyone not see those percentages would rely on stupidity to believe they were true?

Not sure I entirely agree. If one looks at what the evil have perpetrated.

6 million dead WW2

2 million dead at the hands of Pol Pot.

800000 dead at the hands of the Hutus -

8000 massacred in Bosnia.

So far upwards of 100000 dead at the hands of Netanyahu.

The stupid have some way to catch up with these atrocities

60 million dead in WW2, 25 million in Russia alone

I think what he infers is that that level of evil cannot take place without the "stupidity" or gullibility of followers. All those atrocities were not carried out by the guys at the top. Perhaps we could suggest that evil people people can become serial killers on their own but, on their own, they can't become leaders of the type you list Whitewave.

I'm still reeling from the 500%, 600%, 700% fall in prices that Trump obviously thinks people will believe. You can't blame him when you see what people do accept, even when it is so obviously not true/possible.

Enough people are believing Rachel Reeves, does that make them stupid 🤷‍♀️

United States
Date1492–1900s
TargetNative Americans
Attack type
Genocide, mass murder, forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, starvation, slavery, internment, genocidal rape, cultural genocide
Deaths

Decrease 96% population drop (1492–1900)[a]
+4 million (est. 1492-1776)[3]
350,000 (58% population decline from 1800 to 1890)[4]

Victims

98% loss of ancestral homelands[5]

PerpetratorsEuropean powers

British Empire (1585–1783)
British Armed Forces
French Empire (1534–1803)
French Armed Forces
Spanish Empire (1540–1833)
Spanish Armed Forc

In my opinion, it does.

Evil combined with intelligence can devise more ways to harm people than evil combined with stupidity, and can plot for the future and wait to carry out their plans. However, stupid people can be amazingly imaginative in how they torture, and they don't know when to stop working at it and just sit back and enjoy the fruits of their work.

David49

60 million dead in WW2, 25 million in Russia alone

I was talking about the evil of genocide

Whitewave, it probably starts with the destruction of democracy, wouldn't you say?

I admit I wasn't thinking too deeply - I honestly don't know a lot about him really.

I do know it was he who also spoke about "not just bandaging victims" who are wounded beneath the wheels of injustice but he said we should "drive a spoke into the wheel" (or similar).

He was one of those who called out Hitler's persecution of Jewish people.

I hope I haven't derailed this thread.

Elegran

Evil combined with intelligence can devise more ways to harm people than evil combined with stupidity, and can plot for the future and wait to carry out their plans. However, stupid people can be amazingly imaginative in how they torture, and they don't know when to stop working at it and just sit back and enjoy the fruits of their work.

I think it's that his "stupid" (I don't like the word but it was of his time) people aided the evil to power but yes, they could sustain that power too.

But it is the stupid who do the actual killing that the evil instigate. Where would any dictator be without the support of people who respond to their call?

Evil of its own can do very little, it is the midless masses that do as dictators tell them who do the damage.

Stupid evil people like Trump actually get seen through -as is Trump at the moment

Stupid people believe and follow evil people giving them power.

You just need to look around you both on and off line to realise how many stupid people there actually are around. They seem to be myopic to the law of cause and effect and then they have the gall to complain when things don't go their way.

When we look back at how Bonhoeff's "stupid people"aid his "evil people" to power, it doesn't seem quite as clearcut to me once they are in power.

At that point don't the many "good men" doing nothing have a greater effect? Fear is greater then so "doing nothing" at this point is an option, having lost democracy, many may take.

I think evil people can do worse when they hold great power, but as people have said, it takes not so much stupidity by the followers but more often ostrich head in sand and gullibility

(A desire, even if the facts are known, to find an easy solution, people to blame, when the case is generally there is not one available)

I do not like the collective term stupid people

The most well educated, high IQ people can and do say and do stupid things in their lifetimes.

(I also strongly disagree with parents or educators calling children/teenagers stupid! Their actions/words on occasions can be called stupid but not them)

And I also think that not everyone who follows those evil ideologies and actions are stupid either.

Many will believe in the actions and ideologies, which is why genocide was persuade with such enthusiasm in all the countries I mentioned above.

I think that those who spout racist language and ideology should always be taken at face value unless they prove to be stupid.

They must always be taken seriously.

I agree Whitewavemark2 I have read a book and seen an interview with the child/ren of a man who worked as an electrician in Auschwitz.

He was integral to keeping the gas chambers operational. He abhorred what he had to do, he never got over it. What got him through was that he could be a witness to the horrors when the perpetrators were hopefully brought to justice.

He spread the words ^ ever again^

It is the word Bonhoeffer used however, Whitewave and "GrannyGravy13". I'm putting it in quotes to show it's a quote not a word we would chose now. We can't and shouldn't rewrite history and. Bonhoeff's words are part of history but quotes are a way to show we would say it that way now.

GrannyGravy13

I do not like the collective term stupid people

The most well educated, high IQ people can and do say and do stupid things in their lifetimes.

(I also strongly disagree with parents or educators calling children/teenagers stupid! Their actions/words on occasions can be called stupid but not them)

A stupid person is someone who who has the intelligence and knowledge to do better but still acts supidly. It has nothing to do with level of education or IQ.

The classic example is Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who is an exceptionally stupid man.